The present invention relates generally to vehicle repair and maintenance and more particularly to restoring or touching-up scratches, chips, and small recesses in an automotive paint finish.
Blemishes such as scratches, scrapes, chips, gouges, and small recesses in the painted finish of an automobile or other vehicle are unsightly and can reduce the market value of the vehicle. These types of defects can result from a number of causes ranging from accidental scraping with jewelry or other hard objects, to being hit by small rocks, to intentional vandalism, sometimes known as xe2x80x9ckeying.xe2x80x9d On occasion, the paint job on a new vehicle may become scratched or scraped during delivery from the factory to a dealership. Obviously, when a new vehicle is damaged in this way, the damage must be repaired before offering the vehicle for sale as new.
Many techniques short of the complete restoration of the affected body panel have been developed for restoring or xe2x80x9ctouching-upxe2x80x9d blemishes in an automotive paint finish. One technique involves the careful painting of the blemish with matching touch-up paint using a small brush. While this technique has been used for years and is the common touch-up method used by car owners and other non-professionals, it nevertheless is not completely satisfactory because the repair usually is obvious upon even casual inspection. This is because the touch-up paint, once dry, forms a small but objectionable mound covering the blemish and the surface of the mound can be lumpy or uneven. Further, the surface of the repair seldom is flush with the surrounding finish and seldom matches the sheen of the surrounding paint, making it stand out even more.
Another touch-up technique involves air brushing the blemished area with a matching touch-up paint. While this technique avoids some of the problems with brushed on touch-up paint, it nevertheless has its own set of shortcomings. For example, relatively expensive air brushing equipment is required, as is the skill and experience needed to operate it effectively. Accordingly, air brush touch-up has generally be limited to use by professional restorers. In addition, the overspray that is an unavoidable attribute of air brushing covers not only the blemish, but also the surrounding area of the finish and must be removed because it is unsightly. The removal process involves careful cleaning of the area immediately surrounding the blemish with a special paint remover, while not disturbing the small amount of paint that fills the blemish. This is a very tedious process requiring skill and experience. Even using the utmost care, however, it is virtually impossible not to disturb the paint in the scratch so some degree and, often, this renders the repair noticeable. Finally, since touch-up paint must generally be relatively thin and liquid to be sprayed, the paint does not tend to fill the blemish fully. This can result in a small but noticeable concavity in the blemish. In some cases, multiple coats must be applied, allowed to dry, and subsequently sanded and buffed to avoid this problem. In any event, it is clear that air brushed touch-up is an expensive, time consuming, tedious, and imperfect technique for restoring scratches and other blemishes in an automotive paint finish.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,834,054 of Berry discloses another method of restoring small blemishes such as scratches and chips that form recesses in an automotive paint finish. The Berry process involves lubricating the region of the finish containing the blemish and applying a deposit relatively thick color matched touch-up paint to an area of the painted surface directly adjacent to the blemish. A squeegee blade is then pulled with pressure first across the deposit of touch-up paint and then across the blemish. The squeegee blade forces the touch-up paint into the recess, thereby filling the recess to hide the blemish. At the same time, the squeegee blade removes excess touch-up paint from areas of the finish surrounding the blemish and also smoothes the surface of the touch-up paint within the blemish so that it is flat and flush with the surrounding finish. After a short drying interval, a soft cloth wetted with a suitable solvent is wiped over the repair to remove any remaining film of touch-up paint on the surrounding finish and the repair is complete.
While the Berry process is an improvement over the manual and air brush techniques discussed above, it nevertheless exhibits certain problems and shortcomings. For example, the touch-up paint itself is contained in separate squeeze bottles and is applied from the squeeze bottles directly to the finish adjacent the blemish. The squeeze bottle is then capped and put away, whereupon a separate squeegee tool is deployed for spreading the touch-up paint into the blemish. As a result, inherent kit maintenance, cleaning, and storage requirements are entailed and the multi-step nature of the process lengthens the time and increases the complexity of the repair. Further, a substantial amount of touch-up paint is wasted during each repair because most of the paint applied to the finish adjacent the blemish is simply wiped away and discarded. Only a small amount of the deposited touch-up paint actually is wiped into the recess of the blemish. While each repair may only result in the waste of a small amount of touch-up paint, the aggregate amount of wasted paint over time can be substantial. For these and other reasons, the Berry process, while an improvement, is not a complete solution.
A need therefore exists for an improved tool and method for restoring small blemishes in an automotive paint finish that addresses the forgoing and other problems inherent in prior methods and that is fast, efficient, economical, and results in a repair that is virtually unnoticeable. It is to the provision of such a tool and method that the present invention is primarily directed.
Briefly described, the present invention, in a preferred embodiment thereof, comprises a tool for restoring blemishes in a painted finish such as the finish on an automobile. The tool includes a squeezable bottle for containing touch-up paint with the bottle having an externally treaded mouth and being sized and configured to be held comfortably in the hand. An angled coupler has a first end and a second end is provided on its first end with an internally threaded receptacle for threading the coupler onto the mouth of the squeezable bottle. A blade holder is disposed on the second end of the coupler and the blade holder projects from the coupler to a substantially straight forward edge. A flexible blade having opposed surfaces is secured along and projects from the forward edge of the blade holder to a straight free edge. This assembly resembles a squeegee, with the squeezable bottle forming a handle for holding the tool during use.
A small passageway extends through the coupler and the blade holder. The passageway communicates between the treaded receptacle of the coupler and the forward edge of the blade holder at a position adjacent one of the surfaces of the blade. The passageway is sized and positioned to deliver a bead of touch-up paint from the squeezable bottle onto the surface of the blade when the bottle is squeezed gently by a user. The touch-up paint can then be wiped by the blade into a blemish such as a crack or chip in a painted finish to repare the blemish and restore the finish.
The method of the invention comprises applying a measured amount of touch-up paint to one surface of a flexible blade and drawing the flexible blade across a blemish in a painted finish. The blade thus wipes the touch-up paint into the blemish, smoothes the surface of the touch-up paint, and insures that the surface of the touch-up paint within the blemish is flush with the surrounding painted finish. The result is a virtually invisible repair that is accomplished quickly, easily, and economically with far less skill and equipment than is required with prior art restoration techniques. Since only the amount of touch-up paint necessary to fill the blemish is deposited onto the blade, wasted touch-up paint is substantially reduced.
Thus, a unique tool and method is now provided that addresses successfully the problems and shortcomings of the prior art discussed above. A more thorough understanding of the invention will be gleaned upon review of the detailed description of the preferred embodiments set forth below when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing figures, which are briefly described as follows.